Mutations in Cultivation. 189 



of crossing has been rigidly excluded. Sometimes the 

 new character appears very slightly developed in the 

 first instance as in the case of ''double" flowers. In such 

 cases the characters have to be improved by selection. 

 In some the variation appears once and for all, in others 

 it continually reappears. It is well known that every 

 breeder should look anxiously for possible novelties ; but 

 when he has found one, it depends on him and on him 

 alone whether it attains its full beauty. 



The origin of the new form is emphatically due to 

 chance and not to the skill of the breeder, as it is in the 

 improvement of races. 



Chelidonium laciniatum Miller, a subspecies of Cheli- 

 doniuni ma jus, is one of the most beautiful examples 

 because more is known about its origin than about that 

 of almost any other plant, thanks to the painstaking in- 

 quiries of E. RozE.i j^g gives the following history of it. 



About the year 1590, Sprenger, an apothecary in 

 Heidelberg, found in the garden where he grew plants 

 for his business (amongst which was Chel. majns), a 

 new form of Chelidonium which dififered from C. majus 

 in the possession of deeply cut leaves and petals. He 

 called it Chelidonia major foliis et floribns incisis and 

 sent some examples to Jean Bauhin, Gaspard Bauhin. 

 Clusius, Plater and other well-known botanists of his 

 time. All of them declared that the plant was unknown 

 to them and new. It had never been found wild before, 

 nor has it been found since ; although from time to time 

 it has escaped from gardens. It comes absolutely true 

 from seed, has maintained itself till the present day and 

 is very generally grown in Botanical gardens. Miller, 



^ E. RozE, Le "Chelidonium laciniatum" Miller, Journal de Bo- 

 tanique, 1895, Nos. 16-18. 



